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What Sites Should I Link to From My Content?

When you are writing content for your website there are a number of general rules you should follow as it pertains to SEO. One of these rules is to always have outbound links within the content itself. The purpose of these links is to provide supporting information for your post. In a way it is very much like when you were required to provide a list of sources or references when you wrote papers in school.

The best sites to link to are ones which are pertinent to the linking phrase or keyword. But also you want to link to a site or page which is user-friendly and ranks highly on Google.

Don’t Be Afraid

You shouldn’t worry if the site you are linking to is  #1 or #2 for the searched term on Google. It is more important that the page or site you link to is the best link for the job. Even if that page is two or three results pages deep on Google search results, it is totally fine to use it.

Don’t be afraid to link to sites within your field of work. For example: Let’s say you are a plumber. Don’t be afraid to link to an article or page published by one of the plumbing conglomerates like Roto-Rooter. The odds that you lose a potential customer because they clicked that link are almost non-existent. The quality of the page you are linking to is more important. I definitely would not link to a direct local competitor of similar size. You don’t want to give them any of your link juice.

Standard

The industry standard is to link to two external sites from your content page. Then also have at least one link pointing to another page on your own site. This formula has been the most rewarding in recent years.

Authority Sites

These are sites which are ranked highly on Google because they are well-established and well-recognized. These would be sites like CBS, Microsoft, or other well-known and well-trusted brands. Wikipedia can be linked to but in general is seen as a bit lazy and should only be linked to when there are no better options.